Greg Jewell Major Black Writers
ENG 264—7501 (78793)
Course Description, Competencies, Requirements, Policies
Spring 2008
Office: Room 349, Elvis Presley Boulevard (Humanities Suite)
Office Telephone: 824-8623Office Hours: M,W: 9:00-10:00 a.m., T,R: 11:00-12:00 p.m.
Home Telephone: 825-4490 Fridays by Appointment
E-mail: Class Meets: T, R : 9:30-10:45 a.m.
Textbook: Gates, Henry Louis, and Nellie Y. McKay, eds. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2004.
Supplies:Spiral notebook or folder for Reading Journal, college dictionary, notebook for class notes
Course Description: A cross-cultural and historical approach to written and oral works by major Black authors of Africa, the Caribbean and the United States. The course includes writers such as Chinua Achebe (Africa), Wilson Harris (Caribbean), and Toni Morrison (USA).
ENG 264 counts toward the KCTCS General Education Humanities and Cultural Studies requirements.
General Education Competencies and Sub-competency Assessments:
I. Communicate Effectively
1. Read and listen with comprehension.
- Students will be assessed on their ability to read and listen with comprehension through quizzes over course readings and lectures/discussions.
- Students will be assessed on their ability to read and listen with comprehension through written homework activities.
2. Write clearly using Standard English.
- Students will be assessed on their ability to write clearly using Standard English through homework activities, quizzes, the reading journal, and the creative portfolio.
3. Interact cooperatively with others using both verbal and non-verbal means.
- Students will be assessed on their ability to interact cooperatively with others through their class participation.
- Students will be assessed on their ability to interact cooperatively with others through their participation in group activities.
- Demonstrate information processing through basic computer skills.
- Students will be assessed on their basic computer skills through submitting a correctly formatted and word processed creative portfolio.
II. Think Critically
1. Make connections in learning across the disciplines and draw logical conclusions.
- Students will be assessed on their ability to make connections in learning across the disciplines through their creative portfolio, reading journal, and homework activities.
- Students will be assessed on their ability to draw logical conclusions through their reading journals.
- Demonstrate problem solving through interpreting, analyzing, summarizing, and/or integrating a variety
of materials.
- Students will be assessed on their ability to interpret, analyze, summarize, and/or integrate a variety of materials, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama, through classroom discussion, homework activities, quizzes, the reading journal, and the creative portfolio.
III. Learn Independently
1. Make choices based upon awareness of ethics and differing perspectives/ideas.
- Students will be assessed on their ability to make choices based upon awareness of ethics by understanding plagiarism and avoiding it.
- Students will be assessed on their ability to make choices based upon awareness of differing perspectives/ideas through classroom discussion and the reading journal.
2. Apply learning in academic and personal situations.
- Students will be assessed on their ability to apply learning in academic and personal situations through their creative portfolio and reading journal.
- Think creatively to develop new ideas, processes, or products.
- Students will be assessed on their ability to think creatively through their creative portfolios and reading journals.
IV. Examine Relationships in Diverse and Complex Environments
1. Recognize the relationship of the individual to human heritage and culture.
- Students will be assessed on their ability to recognize the relationship of the individual to human heritage and culture through quizzes, the reading journal, and the creative portfolio.
- Develop an awareness of self as an individual member of a multicultural global community.
- Students will be assessed on their ability to develop an awareness of self as an individual member of a multicultural global community through the reading journal and the creative portfolio.
Course Requirements:
Attendance/Class Participation = 15%
Quizzes (8-10) = 20%
Content Literacy Activities = 10%
Reading Journal = 35%
Creative Portfolio = 20%
Extra-Credit: Extra-credit will be given to students who attend selected presentations given by Student Support Services. For every two workshops attended, I will disregard one absence up to three or raise a student’s lowest homework or quiz grade by one letter grade. Also, extra-credit will be given to students who attend The Loman C. Trover Library Reading Series.
Grading Scale:
A = 100-90
B = 89-80
C = 79-70
D = 69-60
E = 59 and below
Reading Journal: 35%
A reading journal is a place to record your reactions and interpretations about what you have read. The journal may be written in a spiral notebook or word processed and kept in a folder. Your journal is due every other Thursday beginning Week 2 for my feedback and evaluation. What I'm looking for is evidence that you've read the material closely and have thought about it. You should always ask yourself the questions: What does this work mean to me? Why is it important? I will give you other, more specific questions to answer in your journal on a regular basis.
Some points to remember:
- Be sure to clearly label each entry with the author's name and the work's title. (Use quotation marks or underlining as needed for titles.)
- Each entry should be a minimum of one page in length, but longer entries are welcome.
3.Correct grammar, usage, and punctuation are expected and will be a factor in your grade, so please proofread and edit carefully. Also, it’s customary to write in the historical present verb tense when writing about literary works.
4.I expect you to write at least two pages in your journal every week, which means you should have approximately thirty pages completed by the end of the semester in order to have an acceptable journal.
5.If your journal is incomplete three times or not turned in on a Thursday, then you will receive a zero for this part of your grade.
Creative Portfolio: 20%
On Thursday, April 17, you will turn in a portfolio of creative work, which should be some combination of essays, poems, stories, song lyrics, photographs, collages, or a video. Each of these must relate somehow to what we have talked about in class or to what you have read in the assigned works for the semester. I expect you to work on your portfolio throughout the semester. Your initial writings in the portfolio will be collected around the midterm for some feedback from me.
Some points to remember:
1.Your portfolio must be typed and double-spaced.
2.It needs to be a minimum of fifteen typed pages in order to be acceptable.
- Correct grammar, usage, and punctuation are expected and will be a factor in your grade, so please proofread and edit carefully.
- The portfolio should be submitted in a plain paper folder, not a plastic cover, please.
On the last day of the semester, you will be asked to read from your portfolio to the class. Of course, you can choose the material you would like to share with your classmates, but I’ll be glad to offer my advice. Your reading should be approximately ten minutes long.
Attendance Policy:Regular and prompt attendance is a necessary part of college work and is expected from all students. Students who miss class are responsible for the material covered in that class and for the work due the next class period. Students missing a class should contact a classmate or the instructor to find out what they have missed and what is due the next class period. Attendance will be taken at every class meeting and will count as a component of a student’s final grade.
A = 1-2 absencesB = 3-4 absencesC = 5-6 absencesD = 7 absencesE = 8 or more absences
In addition, a student who misses 25% (8) or more of the total number of class meetings, for whatever reasons, will be advised to withdraw from the course or may fail the course depending upon the instructor’s judgment.
Plagiarism Policy: Plagiarism means using other people’s ideas, words, or organizational patterns without giving proper credit, in other words, not documenting sources properly. Plagiarism may take several forms: quoting a source’s words without using quotation marks or identifying the source, paraphrasing a source’s ideas without identifying the source, summarizing a source’s ideas without identifying the source, and using statistics without identifying the source. Also, plagiarism means turning in a paper written by another student (or parts of a paper) or turning in a paper downloaded from the web (or parts of a paper or parts of several papers). Having someone correct the errors on a paper is also plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious academic and ethical offense. It’s cheating. Thus the penalty for plagiarism must be severe. A student who plagiarizes the work of another will receive a failing grade for the plagiarized work and, depending upon the instructor’s judgment about the severity of the plagiarism, may fail the course. Students should properly document sources in their writing by using quotation marks for quoted material, in-text parenthetical references, and bibliography entries on a Works Cited page. If a student has any questions about what to document or how to document a source, he or she should ask the instructor. Do not plagiarize.
Late Work Policy: Except for emergency situations or late work approved by me prior to the date of submission, I will not accept late work. This policy holds for homework assignments, quizzes, reading journal submissions, and the creative portfolio.
Withdrawal Policy: Up to the mid-term date of the semester, March 17, students may withdraw from a course at their discretion by turning in a withdrawal slip at the Admissions Office. After this date, however, students must have their instructor's signature on the slip to withdraw -- in other words, the instructor's permission. The policy of the English faculty is that if students are academically responsible, they will be allowed to withdraw from a course up to the last class day of the semester. However, if a student is academically irresponsible (i.e., does not submit assignments, is too frequently absent, or simply disappears), the instructor will not give permission to withdraw from the course.
"Incomplete" Grade Policy: A grade of "Incomplete" will be given only in cases involving emergency or illness. If an "Incomplete" is assigned, a student usually will have thirty days to complete any missing work.
Americans with Disabilities Act Statement: If you have a documented disability and need any type of accommodation, you are required to register with the Disability Resource Coordinator. Contact Valerie Wolfe, Room 112 LRC, 270-824-1670.
Student Code of Conduct: Information about students’ academic rights, academic offenses, and students’ right to appeal can be found in the Student Code of Conduct or on the web at
Drinks are fine in the classroom, but please do not bring in food. Also, be sure to turn off your cell phoneor leave it in your car before coming to class. Please do not text-message in class.
Major Black Writers
ENG 264—7501 (78793)
Spring 2008
Course Calendar
Note: This calendar is subject to change, and students are responsible for noting any changes.
Week 1
January 15Course Introduction/Student Introductions
Major Periods handout/map
January 17The Literature of Slavery and Freedom: 1746-1865, pp. 151-162
Themes in African- American Literature
Video: A History of Slavery in America
Week 2
January 22Olaudah Equiano, 187-189
From The Interesting Narrative…, 189-200
Video: A Son of Africa: The Slave Narrative of Olaudah Equiano
January 24Equiano, 200-213
Phillis Wheatley, 213-215
“On Being Brought from Africa to America” 219
Week 3
January 29Frederick Douglass, 385-387
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself, 387-421
January 31Douglass, Narrative…, 421-452
Quiz
Week 4
February 5Literature of the Reconstruction to the New Negro Renaissance: 1865-1919, pp. 541-554
Charles W. Chesnutt, 602-604
“The Goophered Grapevine,” 604-612
“The Wife of His Youth,” 624-632
February 7Paul Laurence Dunbar, 905-907
“A Negro Love Song” 909
“We Wear the Mask” 918
“Sympathy” 922
“Douglass” 925
“The Poet” 927
Recordings
Week 5
February 12Harlem Renaissance: 1919-1940, pp. 953-962
Video/music
Claude McKay, 1003-1006
“Harlem Shadows” 1006
“Harlem Dancer” handout
February 14McKay, cont.
“The Lynching” handout
“If We Must Die” 1007
“To the White Fiends” 1007
“America” 1008
Recordings
Week 6
February 19Zora Neale Hurston, 1019-1022
“Sweat,” 1022-1030
Recording/video
February 21Hurston, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” 1030-1033
“The Gilded Six-Bits,” 1033-1041
Week 7
February 26Langston Hughes, 1288-1291
Video: Voices and Visions: Langston Hughes
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” 1291Recording
February 28Hughes
“The Weary Blues” 1294
“I, Too” 1295
“Mother to Son” 1292
“Harlem” 1308”
“Motto” 1309
“Theme for English B” 1309
Recordings
Week 8
March 4Sterling A. Brown, 1248
“Strong Men” 1252
Countee Cullen, 1339-1340
“Incident” 1342
“Heritage” 1347
Recordings
March 6Realism, Naturalism, Modernism: 1940-1960, pp. 1355-1368
Initial Creative Portfolio due
Richard Wright, 1399-1402
“The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch,” 1411-1419
Week 9
March 11Spring Break—No Classes
March 13Spring Break—No Classes
Week 10
March 17***Midterm—Last day for students at their discretion to officially withdraw from a course with a Monday W.
March 18Wright, “Long Black Song,” 1419-1436
Video?
March 20Robert Hayden, 1516-1518
“Middle Passage” 1520
“Those Winter Sundays” 1525
“Runagate, Runagate” 1526
“Frederick Douglass” 1528
Recording
Week 11
March 25Ralph Ellison, 1535-1538
From Invisible Man, 1548-1570
March 27Gwendolyn Brooks, 1623-1625
“We Real Cool” 1638
“Riot” 1643
“The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock” 1638
“TheThird Sermon on the Warpland” 1644
Recording
Week 12
April 1James Baldwin, 1696-1699
“Notes of a Native Son,” 1713-1727
Video
April 3Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues,” 1728-1749
Music
Week 13
April 8The Black Arts Era: 1960-1975, pp. 1831-1850
Black Arts Era video
Etheridge Knight, 1908
“The Idea of Ancestry” 1908
“Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane” 1909
“Sinking of the Titanic” 39“Shine and the Titanic” 40
“Dark Prophecy: I Sing of Shine” handout
Recording
April 10Amiri Baraka, 1937-1938
Video: Amiri Baraka
“A Poem for Black Hearts” 1940
Week 14
April 15Baraka
“SOS” 1942
“Black Art” 1943
“Wailers” 1945
“Dope” handout
Recording
April 17Literature since 1975, pp. 2127-2139
Ernest J. Gaines, 2322-2324
“The Sky Is Gray,” 2324-2344
Video
Creative Portfolio due
Week 15
April 22Alice Walker, 2425-2427
“In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” 2430-2437
“Everyday Use,” 2437-2442
April 24August Wilson, 2457-2459
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, 2459-2504
Week 16
April 29Wilson, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, cont.
May 1Charles Johnson, 2542-2543
“The Education of Mingo,” 2544-2552
Video: Conversations with African-American Writers: Charles Johnson
May 2***Last day for students, at the discretion of the instructor, to officially withdraw from a course
Fridayand receive a grade of W.
Exam Week
May 8Read from Creative Portfolios
ThursdayCourse Feedback due, please